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House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Saturday said expanded offshore drilling would be part of a new Democratic energy package when lawmakers return Sept. 8, but Republican leadership warned the plan would likely include other provisions unacceptable to the and President George Bush.

If so, efforts to clear another major energy bill this year will face high hurdles in the waning days of this Congress.

Some key offshore drilling exceptions. Reports note that Pelosi's coming proposal would allow several East Coast states to opt into drilling off their shores, but it does not allow drilling off California or the eastern coast of Florida.

Other likely controversial portions of the coming Democratic energy plan include releasing oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), a renewable-electricity standard, a repeal of tax breaks to oil companies, and allowing the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to set trading limits for all agricultural and energy commodities.

Comments: Despite energy prices and supply being the number-one issue lawmakers are hearing about during their long summer recess, it again looks like politics will derail a final consensus on this matter this calendar year.

NOTE: This column is copyrighted material, therefore reproduction or retransmission is prohibited under U.S. copyright laws.